Ishbosheth Is Murdered

Continuing a chronological Bible study:

(2 Samuel 4:1) And when Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands were feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled.

In the last chapter and post, Abner had joined forces with David, but Joab accused him of deception and killed him, unbeknownst to David.  When Saul's son Ishbosheth, who Abner had set up as king over Israel, heard that he was dead, his hands probably trembled in fear.  But the meaning may more likely be that his hands were weakened because in Abner, he had lost his main support and strength.  All the Israelites were troubled by the news of Abner's death.

(2) And Saul's son had two men, captains of bands, the name of the one Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon a Beerothite of the children of Benjamin (for Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin, (3) And the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and were sojourners there until this day).

Ishbosheth had two men who were captains of troops in his army, two brothers, Baanah and Rechab, sons of Rimmon, a Beerothite of the tribe of Benjamin.  The Beerothites had previously fled from Beeroth to Gittaim, another city in Benjamin, probably at the news of Saul's death (1 Samuel 31:7), gathered from what follows in the next verse.  

(4) And Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son lame of feet. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled, and it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.

Saul's eldest son, Jonathan, had a son named Mephibosheth who was five years old when his father and grandfather were killed.  When the news came of their death, the boy's nurse scooped him up and fled, but at some point, he fell and became permanently lame.

(5) And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who lay on a bed at noon.

Back to Ishbosheth's two captains, Rechab and Baanah, they went into the house of Ishbosheth one day during the heat of the day when Ishbosheth rested on his bed.

(6) And they came there into the midst of the house, as though they would have fetched wheat, and they struck him under the fifth rib, and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. (7) For when they came into the house, he lay on his bed in his bedchamber, and they struck him, and killed him, and beheaded him, and took his head, and got away through the plain all night.

Rechab and Baanah, who were captains in Ishbosheth's own army, came into his house as though they were just fetching some wheat as must have been customary for them to do to feed the soldiers.  However, they went into Ishbosheth's bedchamber and stabbed him under the fifth rib as he rested on his bed.  Under the fifth rib appears to be the deliberate choice of murderers as this is the third time in recent study someone has been stabbed and killed in that location.  That is roughly the location of the lung or heart and would prove to be a fatal wound.  After they killed him, the brothers beheaded him and took his head and escaped into the plains where they apparently ran the rest of the day and all night.

(8) And they brought the head of Ishbosheth to David to Hebron, and said to the king, "Behold the head of Ishbosheth the son of Saul your enemy who sought your life, and the Lord has avenged my lord the king this day of Saul and of his seed."

They took Ishbosheth's head to David at Hebron, expecting him to consider it a very acceptable gift, as they presented it as being of his enemy who had sought his life and claimed it was of the Lord who had avenged him of Saul and his offspring.

(9) And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, "As the Lord lives who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity, (10) When one told me, saying, 'Behold, Saul is dead,' thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him and killed him in Ziklag who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings, (11) How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house on his bed? Shall I not therefore now require his blood of your hand and take you away from the earth?"

David answered the brothers in a way they had not expected.  First of all, he acknowledged that the Lord had been the one to deliver his soul out of all adversity; he did not need the aid of murderers.  He told them of the time when the young man came to him to tell him of Saul's death (and how he had finished him off), thinking David would have thought that good news and perhaps rewarded him, he instead had him killed (2 Samuel 1:15).  He rhetorically asked the brothers how much more should he do to wicked men who had slain a righteous man in his own house in his own bed.

(12) And David commanded his young men, and they killed them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up over the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth and buried it in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron.

David commanded his men to kill Rechab and Baanah.  They cut off their hands and their feet and then hanged them up over the pool in Hebron.  Dr. John Gill, in his Exposition of the Bible, said that they cut off the hands because those had killed Ishbosheth, and they cut off the feet because those had taken them into Ishbosheth's house and bedchamber to kill him.  The Jews called it measure for measure.  Then David and his men took the head of Ishbosheth and buried it in the sepulcher of Abner in Hebron.

David was showing himself to be a just king.  Even though these men had killed a supposed enemy to David, as well as the man who killed Saul, David's fiercest enemy, David showed a strict regard for justice.  Those murderers had taken the law into their own hands and had executed men who were at the time innocent according to the law.  David would not allow vigilante justice.  David, as king, would render capital punishment, and these men had confessed to the murders, and David had them put to death.  

David had been equally incensed when Joab had murdered Abner, but at the time felt he was too new to the kingdom (and not fully accepted as king of all Israel since Ishbosheth still ruled at the time) to make Joab's execution one of his first acts, especially since he was of high office and very powerful.  David had said that the Lord would judge Joab according to his deed.

David's Lamentation for Saul and Jonathan

Continuing a chronological Bible study:

(2 Samuel 4:4) And Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son lame of feet. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled; and it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.

In the last post, Saul and Jonathan had both been killed by the Philistines in the valley of Jezreel.  When the Israelites all around the area heard what had happened, they fled their cities.  This seems to be the case for Jonathan's five-year-old son and his nurse.  As the nurse fled with the boy, Mephibosheth, he fell from her arms and became permanently lame in both feet.  

(2 Samuel 1:1) Now it came to pass after the death of Saul, when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had abode two days in Ziklag, (2) It came even to pass on the third day, that behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul with his clothes rent and earth upon his head, and it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the earth and did obeisance.

During the battle between the Philistines and the Israelites, David had returned to his home in Ziklag to find a band of Amalekite raiders had destroyed the city.  He pursued after the Amalekites and killed them.  He then apparently went back to Ziklag where he had been two days, when on the third day, a man came out of the camp of Saul, dirty and his clothes torn, and when he came to David, he fell to the ground and bowed before him.

(3) And David said to him, "From where did you come?" And he said to him, "Out of the camp of Israel I am escaped." (4) And David said to him, "How went the matter? I pray you, tell me." And he answered that, "The people have fled from the battle, and many of the people also are fallen and dead, and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead, also."

David asked the man where he came from, and he told him he had come from the camp of Saul.  David asked how the battle had gone, and the man told him about how the Israelite people had fled and that many of them had fallen and were dead.  He told David that Saul and Jonathan were dead, too.

(5) And David said to the young man who told him, "How do you know that Saul and Jonathan his son are dead?" 

David asked the young man how he knew that Saul and Jonathan were dead, and he told him an account we have not heard thus far in scripture:

(6) And the young man who told him, said, "As I happened by chance upon Mount Gilboa, behold, Saul leaned upon his spear, and lo, the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him."

According to this man, he happened to come to Mount Gilboa just as Saul had leaned on his sword or spear after being severely wounded by Philistine archers.  Philistine chariots and horsemen were pursuing him hard.

(7) "And when he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me. And I answered, 'Here I am.' (8) And he said to me, 'Who are you?' And I answered him, 'I am an Amalekite.'"

Supposedly, Saul had not immediately died when he leaned on his sword or spear, and when he saw the young man, he called to him and asked who he was.  The man answered that he was an Amalekite, not a Philistine.

(9) "He said to me again, 'Stand, I pray you, on me, and slay me, for anguish has come upon me because my life is yet whole in me.' (10) So I stood upon him and killed him because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen, and I took the crown that was on his head and the bracelet that was on his arm and have brought them here to my lord."

Supposedly, Saul asked the young man to stand upon him and kill him, putting him out of his pain and anguish, because he had not yet died, but was surely mortally wounded.  The man did as Saul asked because he was sure Saul could not live as he was, and he took Saul's crown and bracelet and brought them to David.

(11) Then David took hold of his clothes and rent them, and likewise, all the men who were with him. (12) And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel because they had fallen by the sword.

David and his men tore their clothes, a sign of grief and anguish.  They mourned and fasted until the evening for Saul, Jonathan, and all the people of the Lord who had been killed by the Philistines.

(13) And David said to the young man who told him, "Where are you from?" And he answered, "I am the son of a stranger, an Amalekite." (14) And David said to him, "How was it you were not afraid to stretch forth your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed?"

David then asked the young man where he came from.  He replied he was the son of an Amalekite, to which David asked how it was that he had not feared to kill the Lord's anointed king.

(15) And David called one of the young men, and said, "Go near, fall upon him!" And he struck him that he died. (16) And David said to him, "Your blood be on your head, for your mouth has testified against you, saying, 'I have slain the Lord's anointed.'"

David then ordered one of his men to go kill the young Amalekite, because as David told him, he had killed the Lord's anointed by his own testimony.  That seems rather harsh since Saul had pleaded with the man to finish him off, and also the man had come to David with the king's crown and bracelet.  It does not appear that he had been up to no good.  However, David had long said that no one could lift his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless (1 Samuel 26:9), so he evidently thought this execution was just.

(17) And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son. (18) (Also he bade them teach the children of Judah "The Bow;" behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.)

David wrote what follows, a song of sorrow for Saul and Jonathan that he apparently entitled "The Bow."  It has been referred to as "Song of the Bow."  He called for it to be taught to the children of Judah, and it was included in the book of Jasher, a lost Biblical text.

(19) "The beauty of Israel is slain upon your high places. How are the mighty fallen!"

David referred to Saul and Jonathan as the beauty of Israel, Saul the king and Jonathan his first-born son, the pride of Israel, who were killed on Mount Gilboa.  How suddenly and unexpectedly had those strong and valiant men fallen!

(20) "Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph."

David's wish was that the news of their deaths not be broadcast to the Philistine cities where the young pagan women of the Philistines might sing and dance in the streets because of the death of Israel's king.

(21) "You mountains of Gilboa, no dew, neither rain upon you, nor fields of offerings, for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil."

David wrote that the mountains of Gilboa should have no rain or dew nor any fruitful hills for there the shield of mighty Saul was vilely cast away upon them, as if it was not the shield of God's anointed one.

(22) "From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back, and the sword of Saul did not return empty."

Jonathan's bow never turned away from the mightiest of enemies, but succeeded in its missions, as the sword of Saul did not return having not accomplished its missions.

(23) "Saul and Jonathan, lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided; they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions."

I believe the sense is that Saul and Jonathan were united in life by love for one another, and thusly they died together.  They were mighty men, swift in pursuing their enemies to the relief of the distressed, and strong in bodily strength and courage of mind.

(24) "You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with delights, who put ornaments of gold upon your apparel."

The young women of Israel who used to come out to meet Saul with songs and dances in days of victories were now called to weep over Saul, the one who had enriched their nation that provided for their fine apparel and gold ornaments.

(25) "How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, slain in high places! (26) I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant have you been to me; your love to me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women."

David again lamented how suddenly the mighty had fallen in battle.  He then turned his attention solely to his beloved friend, Jonathan.  He was most distressed over his death.  Jonathan was his dearest brother, David having married his sister, but he stuck closer to him than a brother; he loved him as his own soul (1 Samuel 18:1).  Jonathan's love and devotion for David surpassed the love of women in his life.  Jonathan was more loyal to David than David's own wife, Michal, Jonathan's sister.

(27) "How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!"

David ended his song with a repetition of how the mighty had fallen.  Arms of war had been lost, but I believe David rather meant that the two greatest assets of war, the valiant Saul and Jonathan, had perished.  

Although David was now free from the persecution of Saul and could have rejoiced in that fact, he was most respectful and forgiving and held no hard feelings against Saul.  He was most kind and even wrote a song to commemorate Saul's good characteristics, encouraging it to be taught to children so as to cement a good legacy of Saul.  What a beautiful illustration of what it is to be loving and forgiving toward even our enemies.  It's no wonder that David was a man after God's own heart!